Where does your city rank in UK-wide broadband speed comparison?

Price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com has measured the broadband download speeds of 42 cities across the UK, with Hull coming bottom of the pile with an average of just 12.42Mbps.

Middlesbrough laid claim to top spot with an average speed of 34.46Mbps, closely followed by Belfast (34.34Mbps) and Brighton (33.80Mbps).

The data, which shows actual speeds rather than available top speeds, was measured during a six-month period between August 2015 and February 2016. The results show that there is definite room for improvement as, despite the governments efforts to make ‘superfast’ broadband available to 90 per cent of the UK, 20 of the UK’s 42 biggest cities still have average speeds below 24Mbps.

Worryingly, 30 per cent of tests logged actual speeds of less than 5Mbps and just 10.4 per cent recorded speeds of above 50Mbp. Two of the UK's two capital cities - London and Edinburgh - also fell a long way short of expectations, coming in 28th (22.44Mbps) and 35th (21.07Mbps) place respectively.

Ewan Taylor-Gibson, broadband expert at uSwitch.com, says: “Hull’s broadband infrastructure is unique. It’s the only place in the UK that doesn’t have Openreach lines. Instead, independent telecoms supplier KCOM provides the broadband service​. Although KCOM is currently rolling out ultrafast-capable, fibre-to-the-home connections in Hull, actual speed tests taken by broadband users would suggest this hasn’t reached enough homes yet to make an impact on the average.

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“But it’s not just Hull in the slow lane. The UK’s cities should be leading the charge when it comes to broadband speeds, yet just 22 cities have broadband users with average speeds of more than 24Mbps. With capital cities like London and Edinburgh not on that list, we should be asking what more can be done to encourage the adoption of superfast broadband now it’s so widely available.

"Our data suggests take up isn’t high enough - even in our biggest cities. With fibre ever more available, home broadband users need to know it’s there, and it needs to be priced right, too.”